So I am slowly re-reading a favorite of mine - Hugh Cook's Wizard War.
One thing I like about this book is the way characters are introduced. It's not a bad model for a stat-free character sketch for games, either.
Let's take one of the wizards of the book, Heenmor.
"Name: Heenmor.
Occupation: wizard.
Status: Master wizard of the order of Arl. A renegade wanted dead - most definitely dead - by the Confederation of Wizards.
Description: a massive, troll-shouldered giant, twice the height of any ordinary mortal. Black eyes, blue beard and ginger hair. Robes of khaki, boots of white leather.
Career: most notable exploit was his organization of an expedition to loot an artefact of power from the Dry Pit [. . . ] His companions either died in the Dry Pit or were murder by Heenmor afterwards [. . . ]"
- Hugh Cook, Wizard War, pg. 14-15
It's a punchy description and you can get pretty far with that in knowing what he's like. Your guesses from that won't be far off, either, in the book. Or more importantly, your guess at how to run him in game. A whole plot is encapsulated there, and so is his nature, his level of power, and his unusual size and shape.
How about another bad guy? They read well.
This is a prince of particular importance:
"Name: Johan Meryl Comedo, prince of Estar.
Occupation: ruler of Estar.
Status: Class Enemy of the Common People.
Hobbies: preservation of traditional royal prerogatives by way of rape, torture, looting, arson, sundry oppressions of peasants, incarceration without charge of trial, etc., etc.
Description: not quite the man his father was."
- Ibid, p. 44
I don't know about you, but I know this guy already. I immediately have a mental image of his effete and treacherous face, his whiny edge to his voice, his reaction to just about anything someone can do in his presence, if he even bothers to notice them. And we know what's he's not living up to, and how everyone around him secretly feels about him, whether they serve loyally or not.
Having a loose structure of this sort, highlighting the really evocative and necessary details, seems like a good possible way to organize your notes about NPCs. Or present them to others - if you're writing for publication, you need to convey your impression of the NPC to someone else to run it in game. The advice ("Write done evocative stuff about NPCs") isn't new, but the presentation might be new to you.
For example, here is one I just whipped up for Father Hans, the NPC healing cleric in my game.
Name: Father Hans Goodman
Occupation: Priest of the Good God
Status: Healer of the Second Rank, currently employed by Dryst.
Description: A middle aged man with brown eyes, brown hair with a bald spot, a forked beard worthy of remark, and a club studded with silver nails.
Peculiarities: Addresses everyone as My Son, and remarkably unsympathetic to others' calamities - the Good God does work in Mysterious Ways.
That works pretty well for me.
If you get a chance, read that book, too. It's very entertaining. It seems to be part of a series, but the supposed next book in the series was a light comedy and I couldn't get through it. This one is much darker, and very, very cool.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
DF Felltower - Magic Item Q&A
My players hit with a few questions recently, and since I archive my answers online, here they are.
Can I get higher-skill potions, so they're more likely to overcome Magic Resistance? - No. In my game at least, potions are not bottled spells, but magical concoctions. No matter who makes it, they get an effective skill of 15 once it's created.
I agree higher skill potions make sense, but they add another stat to track, need a cost structure to price them fairly, etc.
Can I get higher-skill Spellstones? - Yes. Magic items assume the maker takes on enough helpers to speed up the process without dropping below skill 15, and thus they all have skill 15 unless you pay extra.
Cost is generally 3x as much for skill 20, and +1x for each skill point past that, based on GURPS Magic.
But importantly you need a caster to work alone, instead of with a circle, and generate a lot more mana without using any helpers. Or you need a lower-skill caster group using a lot of extra power.
So the price in my game will be for Slow & Sure enchantment, $20/point, but then multiplied by the skill multiplier. Skill 20 would be 60/point, Skill 21 80/point, etc. So even a 1-point powerstone would cost 20 to enchant x 80 = 1600 + 70 for the stone or $1670.
Expensive, yes, but it's a special-order type of item in very low demand and which takes so much extra time to create.
Can I get higher-skill magic items? - Yes, but don't bother. It generally won't do anything for you, since I so rarely use Low Mana Zones, and magic armor/weapons don't stop working in LMZs in this game.
Can I get higher-skill potions, so they're more likely to overcome Magic Resistance? - No. In my game at least, potions are not bottled spells, but magical concoctions. No matter who makes it, they get an effective skill of 15 once it's created.
I agree higher skill potions make sense, but they add another stat to track, need a cost structure to price them fairly, etc.
Can I get higher-skill Spellstones? - Yes. Magic items assume the maker takes on enough helpers to speed up the process without dropping below skill 15, and thus they all have skill 15 unless you pay extra.
Cost is generally 3x as much for skill 20, and +1x for each skill point past that, based on GURPS Magic.
But importantly you need a caster to work alone, instead of with a circle, and generate a lot more mana without using any helpers. Or you need a lower-skill caster group using a lot of extra power.
So the price in my game will be for Slow & Sure enchantment, $20/point, but then multiplied by the skill multiplier. Skill 20 would be 60/point, Skill 21 80/point, etc. So even a 1-point powerstone would cost 20 to enchant x 80 = 1600 + 70 for the stone or $1670.
Expensive, yes, but it's a special-order type of item in very low demand and which takes so much extra time to create.
Can I get higher-skill magic items? - Yes, but don't bother. It generally won't do anything for you, since I so rarely use Low Mana Zones, and magic armor/weapons don't stop working in LMZs in this game.
Monday, December 9, 2013
More notes from yesterday's DF session
A few more notes on yesterday's session:
MVP Voting Unsealed: MVP and +1 character point in the end went to Borriz, because he pushed for sending the servant wearing the black hat to touch the altar. He thought it was the key, but instead it merely got the disguised monster revealed and destroyed.
Exploration: My players have now reached or touched up to possibly 8 different levels or sub-levels, maybe even 9, including the surface ruins, depending on how you count and what of the places they've found are really levels, sublevels, or just different sections of existing levels. There are a lot more places they can go.
Bulldozing: The PCs have recently been cleaning up on the monsters without too much harm. Some of it is relative power - the PCs range from 300 to almost 400 points, and have been spending a lot of time up near the surface. That's where the much-less dangerous slimes, reeks, spiders, rats, scorpions, orcs, hobgoblins, gelatinous cubes, slugbeats) and so on are. There were more dangerous foes (wights, gargoyles, toxifiers, trolls, two ogres with some friendly gnolls and ape allies, some cultists) but those have been, for the most part, dealt with.
They've done some deeper pushes, and hit a few really hard slogs - the lizard man fight, the draugr, the wizard and his corpse-golems, some moderately hard fights where their firepower prevailed (the hobgoblins/siege beasts, the ropers) - and some fights they cleaned up on due to good tactics or appropriate magic (the fire-men, the ash spirits) or just sheer firepower (most of the rest).
They've also avoided the really nasty fights once they've realized with wasn't an easy kill and easy money - the draugr, the Lord of Spite (although they often plan to go after him, they haven't yet), the wizard, and a few others.
They are extremely, extremely prepared to dice up living/non-special melee foes. Borriz with Axe/Mace-28, Vryce with Two-Handed Sword-26 and a pile of parries to expend on himself and others, Chuck with Extra Attack and 3d+11 cutting damage and Kiai, etc., plus Galen and his stream of endless arrows. Some other treats are more difficult for them, and they've either dealt with them less well or just moved away from them. Combine that with picking their fights and for GURPS fights to allow for both disastrous defeat or total victory, and there you are.
It's tough to gauge a fight's impact, but I feel like the threat is mostly there. My experience has led me to change some as-yet-unmet monsters to be more or just differently challenging, of course.
But it's also a good example of a "downside" to megadungeon play, if you can call it that. Since the players can choose where to go, and when to come back, they will avoid the hard stuff and aim for the easy stuff.
Rope: Every adventurer needs some rope, and I need to think of every single trap or encounter in terms of "if they apply enough servants and rope, what happens?" Because they always will - create a noose, have some servants pull on the rope, what happens?
MVP Voting Unsealed: MVP and +1 character point in the end went to Borriz, because he pushed for sending the servant wearing the black hat to touch the altar. He thought it was the key, but instead it merely got the disguised monster revealed and destroyed.
Exploration: My players have now reached or touched up to possibly 8 different levels or sub-levels, maybe even 9, including the surface ruins, depending on how you count and what of the places they've found are really levels, sublevels, or just different sections of existing levels. There are a lot more places they can go.
Bulldozing: The PCs have recently been cleaning up on the monsters without too much harm. Some of it is relative power - the PCs range from 300 to almost 400 points, and have been spending a lot of time up near the surface. That's where the much-less dangerous slimes, reeks, spiders, rats, scorpions, orcs, hobgoblins, gelatinous cubes, slugbeats) and so on are. There were more dangerous foes (wights, gargoyles, toxifiers, trolls, two ogres with some friendly gnolls and ape allies, some cultists) but those have been, for the most part, dealt with.
They've done some deeper pushes, and hit a few really hard slogs - the lizard man fight, the draugr, the wizard and his corpse-golems, some moderately hard fights where their firepower prevailed (the hobgoblins/siege beasts, the ropers) - and some fights they cleaned up on due to good tactics or appropriate magic (the fire-men, the ash spirits) or just sheer firepower (most of the rest).
They've also avoided the really nasty fights once they've realized with wasn't an easy kill and easy money - the draugr, the Lord of Spite (although they often plan to go after him, they haven't yet), the wizard, and a few others.
They are extremely, extremely prepared to dice up living/non-special melee foes. Borriz with Axe/Mace-28, Vryce with Two-Handed Sword-26 and a pile of parries to expend on himself and others, Chuck with Extra Attack and 3d+11 cutting damage and Kiai, etc., plus Galen and his stream of endless arrows. Some other treats are more difficult for them, and they've either dealt with them less well or just moved away from them. Combine that with picking their fights and for GURPS fights to allow for both disastrous defeat or total victory, and there you are.
It's tough to gauge a fight's impact, but I feel like the threat is mostly there. My experience has led me to change some as-yet-unmet monsters to be more or just differently challenging, of course.
But it's also a good example of a "downside" to megadungeon play, if you can call it that. Since the players can choose where to go, and when to come back, they will avoid the hard stuff and aim for the easy stuff.
Rope: Every adventurer needs some rope, and I need to think of every single trap or encounter in terms of "if they apply enough servants and rope, what happens?" Because they always will - create a noose, have some servants pull on the rope, what happens?
Sunday, December 8, 2013
DF Game Session 37, Felltower 28 - Ropers, Hydra, and Scary Doors
December 8th, 2013
Weather: Cold, slightly snowy.
Characters: (approximate net point total)
Borriz, dwarven knight (308 points)
Chuck Morris, human martial artist (303 points)
Lerg, orc warrior (?? points, NPC)
Galen Longtread, human scout (327 points)
Red Raggi, human berserker (?? points, NPC)
Vryce, human knight (383 points)
Father Hans, human cleric (130 points, NPC)
Shieldbearer Jon, human guard (62 points, NPC)
* Joining later:
Dryst, halfling wizard (313 points)
Still in town:
Christoph, human scout (258 points)
Honus Honusson, human barbarian (297 points)
We opened in the city of Stericksburg, as usual. Borriz, after an eight-month stint resting his arm after a particularly hard crowbar throw, returned to plunder Felltower with his buddies.
The group gathered rumors, including one about how no one ever made it through the front doors of Felltower, paid their upkeep, and headed into the dungeon. Raggi came because I rolled well. No volunteers did, though, because they're around a 15 or less and I rolled a 16.
They paid the orcs their pre-agreed toll, took on Lerg, an orc warrior, and headed into the dungeon. They headed left, past the gargoyles and into the temple they'd fought in once before. They wanted to see what was in the alcoves to either side of the altar.
The did this by sending Vryce to run in, run into the room on the left, and see what he could see. He saw some dressing dummies, badly scorched by fire, with ruined robes on them. He gabbed one and ran back . . . suffering 22 HP of damage in the process. All they got out of it was a burned robe (which, when eventually repaired, turned out to be nothing special. Oh well.)
They eventually decided not to check the next alcove, and headed further into the dungeon to - you guessed - try to link up some areas on their map. This turned out to be a little more fruitful than might have been expected.
They found one room with a barred-off alcove, with a pedestal with an empty depression on the top . . . and four metal-lined nozzles pointing out. They looped rope around the bars and pulled to either side. But all that did was set off a room-filling spray of poison gas, which slightly hurt Vryce and Borriz - those too slow to get out unscathed. They decided to stop setting off trapped rooms without treasure, and moved on.
They found their way back to the big library room from last time, but instead scouted out the surrounding corridors. Around the "back" of the room they found a corridor, and a barred room. Borriz made short work of that with his excellent Forced Entry skill and crowbar. Beyond it they found a pink slime monster on the ceiling when they looked up. They made long but easy work of it with a torch after backing off, lighting one up, and letting Borriz get to it. They found some ceramic buttons and a corroded belt buckle, but no other sign of whomever barred himself in the room.
The next room they explored was full of pink slimes - and had been crudely barred from outside. Once the door was open and they saw the slimes, they realized why and just slammed the door and moved on. At this point, Borriz started to complain heavily that level one was just slimes and rats, and they needed to move on.
More exploration found them a series of doors . . . and one open one. They went in, and rolled a 1 on initiative. So Galen was bit by surprise by an acid spider lurking just inside (and above!) the door. He backed off firing his bow, Borriz clubbed it with his torch, and then Vryce rolled in and attacked. They made short work of the spider and then killed another in the room.
I'm a little annoyed because Galen took 1 hp of corrosion damage for the first second of spider venom, but I forgot until over an hour later that I never resolved the remaining 9 seconds of damage. Gah. I need a way to mark it . . . maybe roll it all and then check it off as applied? I ruled after the fact it must have had a very weak venom after all.
They looted the room found a few gems and what would later turn out to be a mildly magical elven longbow, along with a spectral ring sized for a Chuck Morris-sized guy. (Nothing special, just a cosmetic magical effect on the ring.)
At this point, Chuck's player's phone rang - kid issues! Sensing their chance to stop trying to complete the map, the group rushed back to the library, and went down the trap door to level 2. No, I'm not kidding. They then hurried to level 3 after Chuck's player returned and tried to neaten up his map - no way, down to the level from last session!
They made it down to the room where they'd fought the hobgoblins and siege beasts. They explored around the area, meandering back and forth between areas. They found a secret door, but couldn't find a way to open it. Borriz found a seam and stuck in his crowbar but got zapped for 6d toxic damage (ignoring his DR.) So they moved on after a further check revealed no obvious was in.
They soon found - in the direction they think the goblin said was dangerous - a glyph-and-rune covered door flanked by alcoves containing pedestals just like the ones the various flail-toting stone golems they've fought have been on. Father Hans knew very little of the runes (he's a healer, not an exorcist/inquisitor like Inquisitor Marco was) but knew enough to say a) they're a curse and b) they're linked to these here magical glyphs in some way. They decided to move on and check a rough-hewn side passage they'd found last time.
They worked their way in, and found the passage wended its way in the same direction as the glyph-marked door. However, it opened into a big cave with a 50' cliff drop-off to a lower cave. As they poked around the edge, two ropers attacked! They were on either side of the party, and used their stretchy tentacles to grab the nearest targets they could most easily flank - Shieldbearer Jon and Chuck Morris. With six tentacles, flank shots, and steep Deceptive Attacks, they grabbed them.
The party launched into action, attacking both. Borriz and Lerg the Orc went for one with their maces; Galen, Raggi, and Vryce went to work on the one grabbing Chuck. Borriz and Lerg found out that the rubbery ropers were really unimpressed by crushing attacks, while Galen pumped arrows to only moderate effect into the eye of the other. Vryce and Raggi cut off tentacles, though, and Chuck (slightly weaker from the toxic touch of the ropers) managed to free an arm and Lethal Strike the roper for some damage. Shieldbearer Jon was gnawed on a bit and then dropped, and then Borriz grabbed. But by then the injured roper was down, and everyone turned and piled up on the one on Borriz. It went down shortly after.
About this time Dryst's player (and technically, our host, since we play at his house) showed up. So I ruled Dryst showed up - just followed them into the dungeon, encountered no difficulty and had no problems tracking them down, and there he was. That's the way it goes. It's just a game after all and it's more fun if he has his own guy to run.
They looked down the cliff and used Apportation to send a Continual Light stone down there.
Armed with a wizard with Hidden Lore (Magical Writings) they went back to the door. Dryst couldn't puzzle them out, except to say it was a mix of holy and magical writings and had runes about fire on the door. Despite Chuck's insistence that the map made a big freaking arrow pointing at the door (it sort of does), they couldn't convince Dryst they should batter it down or have servants try to open it.
They searched further, hearing some growling/roaring noises in the distance, too. They eventually found a room full of cages with big (1-2') scorpions in it, with vials of some sort atop casks in the center of the room. They shot the scorpions dead from the doorway, and then sent in a servant to get a vial. It was a gourd with an animal skin (intestine or bladder, probably) with tiny holes in it stretched across the top. Ah, a milking room for scorpion venom. Galen took a gourd with him, and they moved on. They found some dead ends, and used Seek Earth to find out that there was some silver about 50' or so straight down (roughly, that is). They decided that didn't help. They found the quarters for the slain siege beasts, and some dead ends that were long unfinished sections of the dungeon (budget cuts, they joked.)
Further exploration found them more rooms. All that turned up was a black hat they forced a servant to wear, and then a trapped room (which spelled poison gas doom for a servant), then yet another temple.
This one had black tiled floor and ceiling, and purple-veined black walls and four pillars. A servant walking between the first pillars was zapped with black fire and died. This started was turned into an (hours in game) experiment with the room.
They found there were two pairs of pillars. The first shot black flame at anyone passing between (but not around) the pillars. The second pair shot lightning. There was also a 3' deep, 10' wide, 4' tall altar of grey stone stained with blood. Behind the altar was a painting of humans(?) cavorting with seven nebulous demon-shapes, which Demon Lore expert Dryst couldn't recognize. Anything (meaning, any servant) that touched the altar was blasted by all four pillars and died. Rope around the altar - still died. Push the altar from behind - still died. Tried to whack the pillars - died. The altar has something underneath - seemingly a depressing or egress down under it, spotted with See Secrets.
They eventually sent up one servant with the black hat on to touch the altar - dead . . . but amusingly the "hat" turned out to be a black jellyfish-like creature in some kind of disguise, which equally got roasted by the lightning and fire (and pincushioned by Galen when it didn't die fast enough.)
After expending something like a dozen servants in experiments, and determining the altar was set to move away from the door, they gave up. They just didn't have any clever ideas that weren't just "push hard and have lots of HP" and didn't have a lot of profit yet, and it was getting late.
So they headed off.
They found another room that had been (recently) nailed shut. They broke that door down and found it had markings of a campfire, two big double doors to one side, another way out opposite the way in, and a "Hiroshima shadow" on the wall opposite the doors. The big double doors were heavy, iron-bound, and opened into this room - but also had a heavy lock on the door and were spiked shut from this side. Deciding not to mess with it for now, they headed into the direction the growling had come from.
They found out what it was soon enough - a few rooms down the next direction there was a strong reptilian stink. Then they found a side room and heard growling and scraping of claws - and a 5-headed hydra attacked them. They fired missile weapons (Galen's bow, basically) as it closed and then melee'd it. It was a potentially nasty fight, because they quickly found that slaying its heads caused them to drop off and two to take its place. Not only that, but its blood was toxic, and splattered everywhere as it fought. Plus, while it seemed a bit ungainly, it Dodged well and its heads even better. It snapped at everyone, and once scored two critical hits on Raggi (a 3, for max damage, and a 5, and just hit him) but didn't score anything truly telling blows. In the end, though, they slew it. It had 8 heads (and another growing) when they stopped it by sheer massive damage to its body. A few of them got splashed with poison, but Lerg the orcs was largely immune, Borriz (with HT 13 and Resistance to Poison +8) almost totally immune, and Chuck only moderately bothered (lots of good HT rolls), so they weathered the splash damage. They used Create Fire to torch the entire creature and keep it torched for the 3 minutes it took the fuel-less fire to reduce the hydra to char (180 seconds of direct fire damage is a lot.)
They followed its path to its lair, and found quite a lot - something around 20K or so in coins, gems, and a piece of gold jewelry.
It was late, and they were profitable, so they headed out. On the way out Borriz noted some new construction blocking off a side passage, so they marked it and moved on.
They paid off Lerg near the surface, and headed home in the cold, dark, and light snowfall. They had to stay outside the city until dawn, but weren't bothered. They went in when it was morning, and sold off their gems, etc. for a tidy profit.
Notes:
Very focused session today, all things considered.
I just realized I'd been listing Borriz as 310 points on the blog since February, but he's been 300 the whole time. He showed up and immediately spent 8 points to get Axe/Mace-28, which if you've played GURPS you know is approaching a silly level of skill. Combined with his "Borriz's Tricky Double Tap" trademark move and Slayer Training and a Balanced mace gives him two -4 Deceptive Attack strikes to the Skull at a net skill 16 on each strike.
Finally, someone rolled a 17 on the damn d30 and got the one rumor that's stubbornly sat on the rumor table since the first session of Felltower.
Vryce's played was debating Very Fit or HT 15, but then decided to max out his HP (at 25). It was a 4-HP jump. I think 25 HP is more than any PC has had in my games that I can remember.
Pink slime would have been funnier when the news reports about commercial beef aka pink slime were more current. Oh well.
The ropers, with their extreme grappling ability (6 arms, +2 per extra arm on grapples, and good Wrestling skill) and high grappling ST made me really unhappy with the binary grappled/not grappled basic rules after using the extremely excellent Technical Grappling rules. I need to implement them in some fashion in my DF game. The ropes pretty much grappled you and you die unless someone helps you (which happened) because Break Free is largely useless even for a ST 15+ Judo monster of a martial artist. You can't win the contest, and that's that. This would also not be true with TG - Chuck would have been basically screwed, but also able to systematically work on the grapple in a way that would make the roper need to spend effort to keep him (and reinforce its holds). I need to implement TG in some way in my DF game. Time to chat with Doug again . . .
Why do people put continual light on stones, and then bore holes in them to loop them on necklaces, etc? I don't know. Amulets, twigs, or beads aren't the style. I wonder about this sometimes.
I was personally hoping the hydra would do more, but I wasn't expecting it to be a truly terrible fight. Still, the PCs did well against and immediately recognized the need to shift tactics and just suck up the risk of poison splash damage. Raggi did get lucky, though - a different hit location (say, face instead of body) on that max-damage critical could have ended him.
Lerg the orc was clearly disappointed with just getting a pile of copper coins. Good value, but he saw a lot of gold and silver and didn't get a coin of either. No one in the party cared, though.
Good game, overall - and Borriz's players constant push to get them to go deeper was shown to be a good idea. The risk on the lower level was higher, but so was the reward.
We forgot to vote for MVP before everyone left. By email, then.
Next game is - if we can swing it - just after Christmas. If not, in the new year!
Weather: Cold, slightly snowy.
Characters: (approximate net point total)
Borriz, dwarven knight (308 points)
Chuck Morris, human martial artist (303 points)
Lerg, orc warrior (?? points, NPC)
Galen Longtread, human scout (327 points)
Red Raggi, human berserker (?? points, NPC)
Vryce, human knight (383 points)
Father Hans, human cleric (130 points, NPC)
Shieldbearer Jon, human guard (62 points, NPC)
* Joining later:
Dryst, halfling wizard (313 points)
Still in town:
Christoph, human scout (258 points)
Honus Honusson, human barbarian (297 points)
We opened in the city of Stericksburg, as usual. Borriz, after an eight-month stint resting his arm after a particularly hard crowbar throw, returned to plunder Felltower with his buddies.
The group gathered rumors, including one about how no one ever made it through the front doors of Felltower, paid their upkeep, and headed into the dungeon. Raggi came because I rolled well. No volunteers did, though, because they're around a 15 or less and I rolled a 16.
They paid the orcs their pre-agreed toll, took on Lerg, an orc warrior, and headed into the dungeon. They headed left, past the gargoyles and into the temple they'd fought in once before. They wanted to see what was in the alcoves to either side of the altar.
The did this by sending Vryce to run in, run into the room on the left, and see what he could see. He saw some dressing dummies, badly scorched by fire, with ruined robes on them. He gabbed one and ran back . . . suffering 22 HP of damage in the process. All they got out of it was a burned robe (which, when eventually repaired, turned out to be nothing special. Oh well.)
They eventually decided not to check the next alcove, and headed further into the dungeon to - you guessed - try to link up some areas on their map. This turned out to be a little more fruitful than might have been expected.
They found one room with a barred-off alcove, with a pedestal with an empty depression on the top . . . and four metal-lined nozzles pointing out. They looped rope around the bars and pulled to either side. But all that did was set off a room-filling spray of poison gas, which slightly hurt Vryce and Borriz - those too slow to get out unscathed. They decided to stop setting off trapped rooms without treasure, and moved on.
They found their way back to the big library room from last time, but instead scouted out the surrounding corridors. Around the "back" of the room they found a corridor, and a barred room. Borriz made short work of that with his excellent Forced Entry skill and crowbar. Beyond it they found a pink slime monster on the ceiling when they looked up. They made long but easy work of it with a torch after backing off, lighting one up, and letting Borriz get to it. They found some ceramic buttons and a corroded belt buckle, but no other sign of whomever barred himself in the room.
The next room they explored was full of pink slimes - and had been crudely barred from outside. Once the door was open and they saw the slimes, they realized why and just slammed the door and moved on. At this point, Borriz started to complain heavily that level one was just slimes and rats, and they needed to move on.
More exploration found them a series of doors . . . and one open one. They went in, and rolled a 1 on initiative. So Galen was bit by surprise by an acid spider lurking just inside (and above!) the door. He backed off firing his bow, Borriz clubbed it with his torch, and then Vryce rolled in and attacked. They made short work of the spider and then killed another in the room.
I'm a little annoyed because Galen took 1 hp of corrosion damage for the first second of spider venom, but I forgot until over an hour later that I never resolved the remaining 9 seconds of damage. Gah. I need a way to mark it . . . maybe roll it all and then check it off as applied? I ruled after the fact it must have had a very weak venom after all.
They looted the room found a few gems and what would later turn out to be a mildly magical elven longbow, along with a spectral ring sized for a Chuck Morris-sized guy. (Nothing special, just a cosmetic magical effect on the ring.)
At this point, Chuck's player's phone rang - kid issues! Sensing their chance to stop trying to complete the map, the group rushed back to the library, and went down the trap door to level 2. No, I'm not kidding. They then hurried to level 3 after Chuck's player returned and tried to neaten up his map - no way, down to the level from last session!
They made it down to the room where they'd fought the hobgoblins and siege beasts. They explored around the area, meandering back and forth between areas. They found a secret door, but couldn't find a way to open it. Borriz found a seam and stuck in his crowbar but got zapped for 6d toxic damage (ignoring his DR.) So they moved on after a further check revealed no obvious was in.
They soon found - in the direction they think the goblin said was dangerous - a glyph-and-rune covered door flanked by alcoves containing pedestals just like the ones the various flail-toting stone golems they've fought have been on. Father Hans knew very little of the runes (he's a healer, not an exorcist/inquisitor like Inquisitor Marco was) but knew enough to say a) they're a curse and b) they're linked to these here magical glyphs in some way. They decided to move on and check a rough-hewn side passage they'd found last time.
They worked their way in, and found the passage wended its way in the same direction as the glyph-marked door. However, it opened into a big cave with a 50' cliff drop-off to a lower cave. As they poked around the edge, two ropers attacked! They were on either side of the party, and used their stretchy tentacles to grab the nearest targets they could most easily flank - Shieldbearer Jon and Chuck Morris. With six tentacles, flank shots, and steep Deceptive Attacks, they grabbed them.
The party launched into action, attacking both. Borriz and Lerg the Orc went for one with their maces; Galen, Raggi, and Vryce went to work on the one grabbing Chuck. Borriz and Lerg found out that the rubbery ropers were really unimpressed by crushing attacks, while Galen pumped arrows to only moderate effect into the eye of the other. Vryce and Raggi cut off tentacles, though, and Chuck (slightly weaker from the toxic touch of the ropers) managed to free an arm and Lethal Strike the roper for some damage. Shieldbearer Jon was gnawed on a bit and then dropped, and then Borriz grabbed. But by then the injured roper was down, and everyone turned and piled up on the one on Borriz. It went down shortly after.
About this time Dryst's player (and technically, our host, since we play at his house) showed up. So I ruled Dryst showed up - just followed them into the dungeon, encountered no difficulty and had no problems tracking them down, and there he was. That's the way it goes. It's just a game after all and it's more fun if he has his own guy to run.
They looked down the cliff and used Apportation to send a Continual Light stone down there.
Armed with a wizard with Hidden Lore (Magical Writings) they went back to the door. Dryst couldn't puzzle them out, except to say it was a mix of holy and magical writings and had runes about fire on the door. Despite Chuck's insistence that the map made a big freaking arrow pointing at the door (it sort of does), they couldn't convince Dryst they should batter it down or have servants try to open it.
They searched further, hearing some growling/roaring noises in the distance, too. They eventually found a room full of cages with big (1-2') scorpions in it, with vials of some sort atop casks in the center of the room. They shot the scorpions dead from the doorway, and then sent in a servant to get a vial. It was a gourd with an animal skin (intestine or bladder, probably) with tiny holes in it stretched across the top. Ah, a milking room for scorpion venom. Galen took a gourd with him, and they moved on. They found some dead ends, and used Seek Earth to find out that there was some silver about 50' or so straight down (roughly, that is). They decided that didn't help. They found the quarters for the slain siege beasts, and some dead ends that were long unfinished sections of the dungeon (budget cuts, they joked.)
Further exploration found them more rooms. All that turned up was a black hat they forced a servant to wear, and then a trapped room (which spelled poison gas doom for a servant), then yet another temple.
This one had black tiled floor and ceiling, and purple-veined black walls and four pillars. A servant walking between the first pillars was zapped with black fire and died. This started was turned into an (hours in game) experiment with the room.
They found there were two pairs of pillars. The first shot black flame at anyone passing between (but not around) the pillars. The second pair shot lightning. There was also a 3' deep, 10' wide, 4' tall altar of grey stone stained with blood. Behind the altar was a painting of humans(?) cavorting with seven nebulous demon-shapes, which Demon Lore expert Dryst couldn't recognize. Anything (meaning, any servant) that touched the altar was blasted by all four pillars and died. Rope around the altar - still died. Push the altar from behind - still died. Tried to whack the pillars - died. The altar has something underneath - seemingly a depressing or egress down under it, spotted with See Secrets.
They eventually sent up one servant with the black hat on to touch the altar - dead . . . but amusingly the "hat" turned out to be a black jellyfish-like creature in some kind of disguise, which equally got roasted by the lightning and fire (and pincushioned by Galen when it didn't die fast enough.)
After expending something like a dozen servants in experiments, and determining the altar was set to move away from the door, they gave up. They just didn't have any clever ideas that weren't just "push hard and have lots of HP" and didn't have a lot of profit yet, and it was getting late.
So they headed off.
They found another room that had been (recently) nailed shut. They broke that door down and found it had markings of a campfire, two big double doors to one side, another way out opposite the way in, and a "Hiroshima shadow" on the wall opposite the doors. The big double doors were heavy, iron-bound, and opened into this room - but also had a heavy lock on the door and were spiked shut from this side. Deciding not to mess with it for now, they headed into the direction the growling had come from.
They found out what it was soon enough - a few rooms down the next direction there was a strong reptilian stink. Then they found a side room and heard growling and scraping of claws - and a 5-headed hydra attacked them. They fired missile weapons (Galen's bow, basically) as it closed and then melee'd it. It was a potentially nasty fight, because they quickly found that slaying its heads caused them to drop off and two to take its place. Not only that, but its blood was toxic, and splattered everywhere as it fought. Plus, while it seemed a bit ungainly, it Dodged well and its heads even better. It snapped at everyone, and once scored two critical hits on Raggi (a 3, for max damage, and a 5, and just hit him) but didn't score anything truly telling blows. In the end, though, they slew it. It had 8 heads (and another growing) when they stopped it by sheer massive damage to its body. A few of them got splashed with poison, but Lerg the orcs was largely immune, Borriz (with HT 13 and Resistance to Poison +8) almost totally immune, and Chuck only moderately bothered (lots of good HT rolls), so they weathered the splash damage. They used Create Fire to torch the entire creature and keep it torched for the 3 minutes it took the fuel-less fire to reduce the hydra to char (180 seconds of direct fire damage is a lot.)
They followed its path to its lair, and found quite a lot - something around 20K or so in coins, gems, and a piece of gold jewelry.
It was late, and they were profitable, so they headed out. On the way out Borriz noted some new construction blocking off a side passage, so they marked it and moved on.
They paid off Lerg near the surface, and headed home in the cold, dark, and light snowfall. They had to stay outside the city until dawn, but weren't bothered. They went in when it was morning, and sold off their gems, etc. for a tidy profit.
Notes:
Very focused session today, all things considered.
I just realized I'd been listing Borriz as 310 points on the blog since February, but he's been 300 the whole time. He showed up and immediately spent 8 points to get Axe/Mace-28, which if you've played GURPS you know is approaching a silly level of skill. Combined with his "Borriz's Tricky Double Tap" trademark move and Slayer Training and a Balanced mace gives him two -4 Deceptive Attack strikes to the Skull at a net skill 16 on each strike.
Finally, someone rolled a 17 on the damn d30 and got the one rumor that's stubbornly sat on the rumor table since the first session of Felltower.
Vryce's played was debating Very Fit or HT 15, but then decided to max out his HP (at 25). It was a 4-HP jump. I think 25 HP is more than any PC has had in my games that I can remember.
Pink slime would have been funnier when the news reports about commercial beef aka pink slime were more current. Oh well.
The ropers, with their extreme grappling ability (6 arms, +2 per extra arm on grapples, and good Wrestling skill) and high grappling ST made me really unhappy with the binary grappled/not grappled basic rules after using the extremely excellent Technical Grappling rules. I need to implement them in some fashion in my DF game. The ropes pretty much grappled you and you die unless someone helps you (which happened) because Break Free is largely useless even for a ST 15+ Judo monster of a martial artist. You can't win the contest, and that's that. This would also not be true with TG - Chuck would have been basically screwed, but also able to systematically work on the grapple in a way that would make the roper need to spend effort to keep him (and reinforce its holds). I need to implement TG in some way in my DF game. Time to chat with Doug again . . .
Why do people put continual light on stones, and then bore holes in them to loop them on necklaces, etc? I don't know. Amulets, twigs, or beads aren't the style. I wonder about this sometimes.
I was personally hoping the hydra would do more, but I wasn't expecting it to be a truly terrible fight. Still, the PCs did well against and immediately recognized the need to shift tactics and just suck up the risk of poison splash damage. Raggi did get lucky, though - a different hit location (say, face instead of body) on that max-damage critical could have ended him.
Lerg the orc was clearly disappointed with just getting a pile of copper coins. Good value, but he saw a lot of gold and silver and didn't get a coin of either. No one in the party cared, though.
Good game, overall - and Borriz's players constant push to get them to go deeper was shown to be a good idea. The risk on the lower level was higher, but so was the reward.
We forgot to vote for MVP before everyone left. By email, then.
Next game is - if we can swing it - just after Christmas. If not, in the new year!
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Questions on New Power-Ups Answered
If you missed these, over on the SJG forums there were a few questions asked about some of the new Power-Ups for GURPS DF in the most recent issue of Pyramid.
Specifically, Naked Rage and Greater Weapon Bond.
Naked Rage gets clarified here:
Naked Rage Questions
I responded as well, but my interpretation was too strict - I went for "no armor at all" and the real intention is "no damage reduction in places where you have DR." But Sean wrote that one, so his interpretation trumps mine completely! You can ignore the bit that post attributed to me.
Greater Weapon Bond here:
Greater Weapon Bond.
As I said, just in case you missed those.
Specifically, Naked Rage and Greater Weapon Bond.
Naked Rage gets clarified here:
Naked Rage Questions
I responded as well, but my interpretation was too strict - I went for "no armor at all" and the real intention is "no damage reduction in places where you have DR." But Sean wrote that one, so his interpretation trumps mine completely! You can ignore the bit that post attributed to me.
Greater Weapon Bond here:
Greater Weapon Bond.
As I said, just in case you missed those.
Friday, December 6, 2013
Random Stuff 12/6
Random stuff not sufficient to justify its own post . . .
- Dyvers Campaign has a really impressive blog listing. If you ever wonder what you are missing, odds are it is here. I am included, although, heh, I do seem to post a lot of GURPS. Go figure. ;)
- I am almost finishing assembling OGRE's 3-d counters. I am giving it the Sharpie treatment, which explains the time taken. I have about 3/4 of a grey sheet to go. Also the Vulcans, but I am skipping them. Sorry Vulcan fans, but I just don't see the attraction to them. To me, it feels like spending my time assembling tank-recovery models. I can't see really getting into using them. Am I missing something? They were added long after I stopped playing OGRE on a daily basis, so maybe I just don't see the awesomeness. To me Ogres are about firepower, not arms.
- It's a nice treat when my students get assigned stuff I like. I'm re-reading Beowulf, the Seamus Heaney bilingual edition, just to make sure I'm up on the canon they're writing about. Good stuff. I remember there was an old Dragon with three takes on Beowulf in AD&D terms . . . but for all I own the Dragon Archive, I can't find the issue number with search or archive. Weird.
- In theory, I have game this Sunday, which might mean another session report. But it's not clear yet who can make it, and December is always tough. If not, I'll provide another Felltower NPC's stats.
That's all for now.
- Dyvers Campaign has a really impressive blog listing. If you ever wonder what you are missing, odds are it is here. I am included, although, heh, I do seem to post a lot of GURPS. Go figure. ;)
- I am almost finishing assembling OGRE's 3-d counters. I am giving it the Sharpie treatment, which explains the time taken. I have about 3/4 of a grey sheet to go. Also the Vulcans, but I am skipping them. Sorry Vulcan fans, but I just don't see the attraction to them. To me, it feels like spending my time assembling tank-recovery models. I can't see really getting into using them. Am I missing something? They were added long after I stopped playing OGRE on a daily basis, so maybe I just don't see the awesomeness. To me Ogres are about firepower, not arms.
- It's a nice treat when my students get assigned stuff I like. I'm re-reading Beowulf, the Seamus Heaney bilingual edition, just to make sure I'm up on the canon they're writing about. Good stuff. I remember there was an old Dragon with three takes on Beowulf in AD&D terms . . . but for all I own the Dragon Archive, I can't find the issue number with search or archive. Weird.
- In theory, I have game this Sunday, which might mean another session report. But it's not clear yet who can make it, and December is always tough. If not, I'll provide another Felltower NPC's stats.
That's all for now.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
How much can you enchant your weapon?
Yesterday I talked about ways to limit the enchantments for armor, basically by some trait of the material.*
Today, let's talk weapons. What if you want to limit the maximum enchantment by underlying weapon?
First, there are a lot of weapon enchantments in GURPS Magic. Flaming Weapon, Icy Weapon, Lightning Weapon, Penetrating Blade, Puissance, Accuracy, Loyal Weapon - just to name some off-hand.
Second, some of them already come with restrictions - specific materials needed, or specific construction (no Flaming wooden weapons, and all icy weapons must mount a specific gemstone.) The below are in addition to that.
One Level Per Level of Quality - this draw a line in the sand at good quality weapons. A baseline, off-the-tables good quality weapon can one one level of an enchantment. Puissance +1 at most. Fine allows a second level, or Puissance +2. Very Fine is the only level that allows Puissance +3. Cheap weapons simply cannot hold an enchantment. Accuracy might work just fine for one level on good quality weapons, but need Balanced before it can be +2 or +3.
One Level Per Modifier - For every weapon modifier, it can hold one level of enchantment per enchantment. You can push this further by saying one level of enchanment, rather than one level per enchantment. Want a Puissance +2 Accuracy +2 Flaming Sword with Penetrating Weapon (5)? It needs eight weapon modifiers or levels! Bring on Orate +3 and Very Fine, you're going to need them.
Limited By Material - Unlike armor, weapons can come in a variety of materials without changing the base type. So limit enchantments by the underlying materials. Only metal can be enchanted past +1. Only silver can hold Ghost Weapon. Only steel weapons can be Penetrating Blades. It can be even more exotic - the Malazan books limit the best swords to those made of stone. How about that for flavor? Excalibur sure is nice, but it's not made from rock, so, well . . .
This can also serve to limit especially cost-effective spells, like Penetrating Blade. If it can only be used on weapons of a specific material that is otherwise limited in enchanments, expensive (and/or rare), has odd drawbacks (can't hold an edge, only a point), it suddenly becomes a niche enchantment instead of a baseline need for all fighters.
Limited By Specific Modifier - pick one modifier (Fine works) and limit each (or all) enchantment by that modifier. If you need Balanced for Accuracy, Fine for Puissance, Elven for Quick-Aim . . . you end up with weapons that have a design bias (or cultural bias) towards certain enchantments.
Cost Based - like I mentioned with armor yesterday, just set a ratio. Swords suddenly become much more likely to be enchanted because of their cost. A Dwarven axe is nice, sure, but it's low base cost suddenly holds it back from being the most powerful of weapons.
For any of these, you can make exceptions based on things like the Named Possession rules or for artifacts or other special cases such as holy weapons. But there is a real charm to needing specific ingredients (or specific construction) that drives what magic a weapon can hold.
* One poster on G+ called that a solution in search of a problem. To be clear, this isn't something I think is a problem, game mechanically or otherwise. It's a setting decision. Sometimes you want a setting where people to turn everyday trash swords into Excalibur with magic, sometimes you want to limit it to the best materials. Or tie specific enchantments to specific materials. This post and the one yesterday are for that; they're flavor changes, not game balance "fixes." It can really add some flavor to the game when people have to hunt down rare materials in order to allow a really powerful enchantment.
Today, let's talk weapons. What if you want to limit the maximum enchantment by underlying weapon?
First, there are a lot of weapon enchantments in GURPS Magic. Flaming Weapon, Icy Weapon, Lightning Weapon, Penetrating Blade, Puissance, Accuracy, Loyal Weapon - just to name some off-hand.
Second, some of them already come with restrictions - specific materials needed, or specific construction (no Flaming wooden weapons, and all icy weapons must mount a specific gemstone.) The below are in addition to that.
One Level Per Level of Quality - this draw a line in the sand at good quality weapons. A baseline, off-the-tables good quality weapon can one one level of an enchantment. Puissance +1 at most. Fine allows a second level, or Puissance +2. Very Fine is the only level that allows Puissance +3. Cheap weapons simply cannot hold an enchantment. Accuracy might work just fine for one level on good quality weapons, but need Balanced before it can be +2 or +3.
One Level Per Modifier - For every weapon modifier, it can hold one level of enchantment per enchantment. You can push this further by saying one level of enchanment, rather than one level per enchantment. Want a Puissance +2 Accuracy +2 Flaming Sword with Penetrating Weapon (5)? It needs eight weapon modifiers or levels! Bring on Orate +3 and Very Fine, you're going to need them.
Limited By Material - Unlike armor, weapons can come in a variety of materials without changing the base type. So limit enchantments by the underlying materials. Only metal can be enchanted past +1. Only silver can hold Ghost Weapon. Only steel weapons can be Penetrating Blades. It can be even more exotic - the Malazan books limit the best swords to those made of stone. How about that for flavor? Excalibur sure is nice, but it's not made from rock, so, well . . .
This can also serve to limit especially cost-effective spells, like Penetrating Blade. If it can only be used on weapons of a specific material that is otherwise limited in enchanments, expensive (and/or rare), has odd drawbacks (can't hold an edge, only a point), it suddenly becomes a niche enchantment instead of a baseline need for all fighters.
Limited By Specific Modifier - pick one modifier (Fine works) and limit each (or all) enchantment by that modifier. If you need Balanced for Accuracy, Fine for Puissance, Elven for Quick-Aim . . . you end up with weapons that have a design bias (or cultural bias) towards certain enchantments.
Cost Based - like I mentioned with armor yesterday, just set a ratio. Swords suddenly become much more likely to be enchanted because of their cost. A Dwarven axe is nice, sure, but it's low base cost suddenly holds it back from being the most powerful of weapons.
For any of these, you can make exceptions based on things like the Named Possession rules or for artifacts or other special cases such as holy weapons. But there is a real charm to needing specific ingredients (or specific construction) that drives what magic a weapon can hold.
* One poster on G+ called that a solution in search of a problem. To be clear, this isn't something I think is a problem, game mechanically or otherwise. It's a setting decision. Sometimes you want a setting where people to turn everyday trash swords into Excalibur with magic, sometimes you want to limit it to the best materials. Or tie specific enchantments to specific materials. This post and the one yesterday are for that; they're flavor changes, not game balance "fixes." It can really add some flavor to the game when people have to hunt down rare materials in order to allow a really powerful enchantment.
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